urban

Greater Noida Case: Buyers at Loss in Absence of Real Estate Regulator

by Paul Joseph July 21, 2011

The need for a real estate regulator is under the spotlight once again, following a recent court verdicts on land acquisition of villages in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. In the absence of a regulator, the home buyers who have invested in the affected properties are at a loss on how to claim refunds or seek compensation. The proposed Real Estate Regulation Bill, which seeks to protect the interest of home buyers, was scheduled to be tabled in the ensuing monsoon session of Parliament, beginning on August 1. But the ministry of housing and poverty alleviation is yet to get the law ministry’s opinion on the draft Bill, an official has said. The housing ministry had sent the draft Bill to the law ministry for vetting almost three months ago. “It’s high time we had a real estate regulator,” National Association of Realtors (India) Chairman P S N Rao told Business Standard. Although aggrieved home buyers have the option of moving consumer courts now, the proposed legislation is expected to put in place user-friendly processes and regulations, according to Rao. Managing director and country head (India) at Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Sachin Sandhir has been advocating the need for regulating the sector. He said the proposed law would bring in accountability. He argued that the accountability should not just be for developers, but urban local authorities should also be brought under the purview of the legislation. The current version of the Bill covers just the real estate developers, and not the government or urban local authorities. A real estate consultant pointed out that if there’s demand for the Prime Minister to come under the Lok Pal Bill, why couldn’t the government and urban local authorities be covered by the Real Estate Regulation Bill. “There’s a need to relook at the Bill,” he added. Once the law ministry gives its opinion on the draft real estate bill, a draft Cabinet note on the subject will be circulated among ministries of finance, home, urban development, consumer affairs and the Planning Commission. It will then seek a Cabinet clearance before introducing it in Parliament. The concept of a real estate Bill has been around for almost a decade and has seen a change in both form and content several times. Initially, work on the real estate Bill was started by the urban development ministry, but subsequently the housing ministry took charge of the proposed legislation. According to the real estate draft regulation Bill, developers will need to make public disclosures related to land title, project completion date and other relevant scheme details on the website of the proposed regulatory authority, said a housing ministry official. The disclosures must be made before launching a project, so that consumers are not taken for a ride at a later stage. Developers will also have to register themselves with the regulatory authority.

Tagged as: chairman, delhi, draft, government, housing, noida, property prices, proposed, real estate india, spotlight, urban

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Mumbai Ranked as the Most Favoured Development Market in Asia Pacific Region

by Paul Joseph July 8, 2011

Mumbai is ranked third as the most promising investment market, and the first as the most favoured development market, in the recent Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific 2011, a real estate forecast jointly published by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and Pricewaterhouse-Coopers (PwC). “Projections for Mumbai in 2011 look good, as the city’s investment ranking rises five spots to third,” the report states, adding that this city is “clearly the best performing and most active real estate market” . Development in Mumbai continues to be an area of interest, with the city ranking first in the 2011 results, up from sec ond in 2010. Oversupply continues to be a serious risk for the area, but respondents “don’t think many people are worried about real estate turning into a bubble again” . “In terms of investment, buying opportunities ‘ring out’ in the retail, apartment and industrial sectors,” the report adds. The report also notes that India’s GDP continues to grow and shows “no real signs of declining anytime soon” . Over the past 30 years, it says, the country has managed to sustain a GDP growth rate average of 10%. Projections for 2011 are 8.5%, and forecasts are for growth of between 9% and 10% by 2015. This is a significant move from the mid-6 % range found in the early 2000s. To support this economic expansion, there has been a large amount of growth in the working population of India. Also, the government continues to make progress in introducing reforms that have helped the country introduce new private equity to capital markets, create a new platform of employment, and inject capital into infrastructure programmes. Exports of both goods and services from this region continue to increase, marking more business interest abroad. Speaking of the region as a whole, the ULI/ PwC report also states that the “cloud has been lifted” from Asia Pacific real estate markets , with the fiscal outlook for most of the Asian countries more promising than that for Europe or the United States. “Many , if not most, Asian economies have rebounded to pre-crisis levels, and real estate markets, although mostly slower, are headed towards some semblance of normalcy,” said ULI Asia Pacific chairman C Y Leung.

Tagged as: delhi, emerging-trends, europe, mumbai, pacific, pune, real estate, real estate india, region, retail, united, urban

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Pune Based Kumar Urban Development Ltd Looking to Launch Residential/ Commercial Properties in Pune&Mumbai

by Paul Joseph June 30, 2011

As part of its expansion plans, Pune-based Kumar Urban Development Ltd (KUL) is looking to launch seven residential and three commercial projects with a total developable area covering 2-2.2 million square feet in the coming two quarters of this fiscal. The new projects will include two high-end residential and two commercial projects at Pune and five residential and one commercial projects at Mumbai. The projects are slated to be launched at regular intervals. Further, the group also plans to develop at least one million square feet of realty space in addition to its ongoing redevelopment work of societies in Mumbai within this fiscal. Speaking exclusively to Realty Plus, Kruti Jain, director, KUL, said, “With the real estate sector looking promising in the near future, we plan to launch at least seven new residential and three commercial projects in Mumbai and Pune in the coming two quarters. The total developable area will be about 2-2.2 million sq ft which will be a mix of residential and commercial spaces. Also, our future expansion will be in cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad. After the success of our 750-unit project in Bengaluru, we have acquired few more land parcels here which we plan to develop in the near future.” KUL’s new commercial projects will be conventional developments which will not be mall-like. The total developable area will be 13-14 lakh sq ft. Further, their expansion plan also includes redevelopment of housing societies in Mumbai. The company currently has almost 46 societies for redevelopment of which just seven are completed; five are under construction, while remaining are in various stages of design and construction. “In addition to the ongoing five redevelopment projects in Mumbai, we also plan to redevelop almost one million sq ft of such projects within this fiscal. The total number of units to be redeveloped would be about 5000,” added Kruti. KUL, currently, has about 1500 acres in their land bank out of which 1300 acres is already on the design board at different stages. The company is looking to work at sizeable projects in both Bengaluru and Hyderabad and plans to launch township projects in the near future. “Extensively involved in the process of acquiring land in both Mumbai and Bengaluru, we are extremely bullish about this year. Last year we delivered almost 3000 apartments. This year we will be developing the same number but since there are a number of high-end projects the total area developed will be much more than last year,” claimed Kruti.

Tagged as: bengaluru, coming, design, fiscal, kumar-urban, launch-township, mumbai, new-commercial, pune, real estate, real estate developers, real estate india, realty-plus, urban

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Proposed Real Estate Regulation Bill May be Delayed

by Paul Joseph June 28, 2011

The proposed Real Estate Regulation Bill may be delayed. The ministry of housing and poverty alleviation, which was set to table the draft bill during the Monsoon session of Parliament, is yet to get the law ministry’s opinion on it. The draft Bill was sent to the law ministry for vetting nearly two months ago. Once the law ministry gives its opinion on the matter, a draft Cabinet note on the subject will be circulated among ministries of finance, home, urban development, consumer affairs and the Planning Commission. It will then seek a Cabinet clearance before introducing it in Parliament. In view of the elaborate procedure, it would be difficult for the proposed Bill to make it to the Monsoon session, beginning August 1. The concept of a real estate Bill has been around for almost a decade and has seen a change in both form and content several times. Initially, work on the real estate Bill was started by the urban development ministry, but subsequently the housing ministry took charge of the proposed legislation. Although the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had recently issued a warning to developers over inflated valuations of property, the proposed Bill will not cover the valuation aspects in the current draft, leaving it to market forces. Concerned over inflated valuations of real estate properties for loans, RBI had asked all banks to submit an action-taken report on the issue. According to the real estate draft regulation Bill, developers will need to make public disclosures related to land title, project completion date and other relevant scheme details on the website of the proposed regulatory authority, said a housing ministry official. The disclosures must be made before launching a project, so that consumers are not taken for a ride at a later stage. Developers will also have to register themselves with the regulatory authority. The content of the draft Bill was changed before sending it to the law ministry, to make it a central legislation. Earlier, it was a state matter. The focus of the revised Bill is now on consumer protection and contractual obligations of developers. Although the Consumer Act and penal provisions exist for grievance redressal, these come into the picture only after a commitment is made by developers to property buyers, pointed out an official. State-centric issues, such as building bye-laws and municipalities, have been removed from the new draft to make it a central legislation. The thrust now is on consumer protection against fraud, timely completion of projects by developers and contractual obligations of the builder/developer. Industry representatives, however, said a separate Bill on consumer protection is in the making for the real estate sector. Housing ministry officials denied knowledge of any proposed legislation on consumer protection other than the real estate draft Bill. The objective of the proposed legislation is to establish a regulatory authority to regulate, control and promote planned and healthy development and construction, sale, transfer and management of colonies, residential buildings, apartments and other similar properties, and to host and maintain a website containing all project details.

Tagged as: consumer, draft, india, picture, real estate india, reserve, table-the-draft, the-proposed, urban

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Increase in Interest Rates May Result in 10-15% Hike in Property Prices

by Paul Joseph June 17, 2011

Housing prices may rise by 5-10 per cent in the next 3-6 months as the cost of funds for developers is expected to increase following the Reserve Bank of India’s decision to raise key policy rates by 25 basis points. “Property prices are bound to go up in next 3-6 months by 5-10 per cent across the country,” Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) Chairman Pradeep Jain told PTI.Jain, who is also the Chairman of Parsvnath Developers , said the hike in repo and reverse repo rates would result in an increase in interest rates for builders and the same would be passed on to home buyers. He, however, said demand would not be hit despite the expected rise in interest rates on home loans. “People will continue to buy knowing that housing prices would go up further,” he said. Instead of demand, Jain said supply would be affected, as the increase in interest rates would impact the liquidity situation of small developers. Asked about impact of the hike in repo and reverse repo rates on the realty sector, DLF Group Executive Director Rajeev Talwar said, “The constant increase in interest rates over the last one year would definitely have an impact”, and suggested that the government initiate reforms to boost the supply of housing. The Reserve Bank, for the tenth time since March, 2010, raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.5 per cent and the reverse repo rate by a similar margin to 6.5 per cent today. Echoing similar views, Credai President Lalit Kumar Jain said, “Any increase in the rate of interest will be counter- productive and my fear is that it will give rise to inflation instead of curbing it.” “… The cost of funding from the developers’ point of view would also shoot up. This will be passed on to the customer, who is already under stress,” Jain, who heads Mumbai-based Kumar Urban Development Ltd , said. Raheja Developers Chairman and Managing Director Naveen Raheja said: “As the cost of money goes up, the cost of construction and production will also go up. This will lead to further inflationary pressures.” The need is to increase supply so that demand pressures can be eased and consequently, the prices are curtailed, he added.

Tagged as: bangalore, chairman, cost, developers, director-rajeev, hike, kumar-urban, mumbai, property prices, raised-the-repo, real estate, real estate india, reserve, urban

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Urban Development Minister Accepts Govt’s Failure in Responding to Real Estate Growth Appropriately

by Paul Joseph April 29, 2011 Uncategorized

Urban development minister Kamal Nath admitted today that “the government has not responded to the tremendous growth in the real estate sector in the last one decade appropriately”. Addressing the 11th National Conference of Credai (Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India) in Singapore, he said not much progress has been made in the area of “land economics” too. Asking the government to facilitate a single window clearance to help bring down corruption in the real estate sector, Credai president Lalit Kumar Jain said, “India is one of the most corrupt countries in the world and the real estate sector is its biggest contributor.” While “affordable housing” has become a favourite subject of politicians, not much has been done to develop it. The sector has to bear with huge delays in approval of projects and also risk stoppage of work. Real estate experts said about 50-60 per cent of the sale value goes towards approval and taxes. With a change in policies, the costs can be reduced. This would directly benefit the middle class. Jain said, “Developers are unable to take up affordable housing projects. We need to connect to 150 officials across 40 departments of central, state government and municipal corporations. This takes 2-3 years and to speed up things, money is exchanged.” In his speech, Kamal Nath said “mission transparency is not only for the real estate but also for the government”. “We are not building for the future, unlike Hong Kong and Singapore. We are still catching up with the past,” he added. Indicating that his ministry would organise a joint conference with all states on improving real estate practices, Kamal Nath said, “We have to move from the stage of no practices and bad practices in real estate to best practices. I will, in my discussions with state governments, ask them to engage at the regional level and then we will soon have a conference in Delhi.” Credai has submitted an action plan to the urban development ministry with a detailed checklist of approvals required and those which can be done away with. It mentions a dateline, including finalising the document by Credai by August 15 this year, finalising comprehensive check list and implementation by all state governments by January 26, 2012 and making all necessary amendments by April 28 next year.

Tagged as: bangalore, estate-sector, from-the-stage, gurgaon, kamal, kamal-nath, pune, real estate, real estate companies, real estate developers, singapore, the-government, urban

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Gurgaon Property assess-

by Paul Joseph March 15, 2011 Uncategorized

To be found in the vicinity of the national capital of India, Gurgaon is flattering a major business center and a worldwide dimension. Most multinational companies wish to place their offices in Gurgaon property in Delhi owing to an excess of contributing aspects. As a result, the kinds of property in Gurgaon are the blue clouds. This trend ongoing several years before and has lately obtained unstoppable and permanent amounts. The companies that place offices in Gurgaon real estate units be owned by the large range of industries. Though, in the midst of companies opening their offices in the Gurgaon city, the IT and BPO zones make up the majority. As a predictable result and outcome, there is mounting urbanization and the urban center of Gurgaon property is going up at an urban widening. Consequently, the demand for accommodation and commercial real estate in Gurgaon is increasing. In the midst of the features that put in, the complexity of infrastructure, particularly transportation amenities over the county, has offered easy access to Gurgaon from the capital of the nation and the centers in adjacent states. The building of the the Delhi-Gurgaon highway 8-meter line, Jaipur-Delhi national highway and the Delhi-Gurgaon are remarkable milestones in the enlargement of Gurgaon in an urban center of main commercial significance. In spite of the growing rate in managing real estate people and entities that appear, the property market in Gurgaon is frequently dominated and controlled by a handful. Subsequent the property boom in Gurgaon, it develops into progressively complexity for a common potential purchaser in search of a property at a good price in their media.

Tagged as: amenities-over, capital of the nation, highway-8-meter, media, offices, property in delhi, property-market, real estate, urban

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Projects worth Rs 15000 cr Stalled in Gujarat Due to Environment Clearance

by Paul Joseph February 28, 2011 Uncategorized

Realty projects worth Rs 15,000 crore have been stalled in Gujarat. This hurdle has been created by the Central government’s directive which makes it mandatory for all realtors to get an environment clearance certificate before launching building projects. The Central government had in 2009 made it mandatory to get environment clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MOEF) or its state-level body. As per the directive, all constructions spread over 20,000 sq mt built-up area had to go through mandatory environmental clearance from the state-level Environment Impact Assessment Authority. Projects larger than that had to be cleared by the MOEF. As per the directive, the developers, after acquiring the environment clearance, had to move his file for building plan approval by urban department of the state. Sources said almost all states were approving the projects with an undertaking that the developer would get the environment clearance. However, three months back, the MOEF issued directives to the urban bodies that environment clearance is mandatory before passing the building construction project plan. Jaxay Shah, president of the Gujarat chapter of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI), said the association has opposed the decision as it is delaying numerous projects. He said, “Once a file is moved for environment clearance, it takes about six to eight months to complete all formalities and then an equal time is necessary for the plan approval by urban authorities. This causes inordinate delays and jeopardises projects.” “The corporation and urban bodies in Gujarat approve the building plan only after they have drainage and sewerage disposal systems in place. This takes care of the environment concerns. We are not against environment clearance but let such regulation should be implemented for projects that are spread over more than 20 lakh sq mt,” said shah He said the strict implementation of this norm has stalled projects worth Rs 15,000 crore in Gujarat alone. He demanded that the MOEF should simultaneously allow the developer to move his project file for environment clearance while he acquires the final approval from the civic bodies.

Tagged as: association, banking and finance, central, india, project, property prices, real estate developers, state, urban

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Reforms Required in Real Estate Sector

by Paul Joseph February 28, 2011 Uncategorized

Reforms in the real estate sector is the need of the hour for tackling issues like high stamp duty which often results in otherwise honest people having to deal in black money, according to the Economic Survey 2010-11 tabled by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha on Friday. “There is need for some fundamental reforms like tackling the high stamp duty issue which makes even honest citizens deal in black money,” it said. The annual report also called for dealing with issues like rising interest rates in the real estate sector, a big deterrent for people seeking home loans. A joint study by advisory firm Price Waterhouse Coopers and Urban Land Institute of India has cited India as one of the emerging markets for real estate sector in the Asia Pacific region. The study termed India as a semi-transparent market and ranked it 41 on a global transparency scoring scale. While it placed Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore among the top 10 prospective cities for real estate investment for the year 2011, Mumbai and New Delhi also captured the top two places in terms of city development prospects for the year 2011. The gross domestic product from the real estate sector including ownership of dwellings along with business services witnessed a growth of 7.5 percent in 2009-10.

Tagged as: estate-sector, finance, india, interest-rates, mumbai, noida, price, real, real estate, real estate developers, real estate india, urban

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New Launch Emaar MGF Emerald Floors Select Ultra Luxury Villa Floors

by Paul Joseph January 12, 2011 Uncategorized

Emaar MGF Launches a new project at Emerald Hills named “Emerald Floors Select”. This project is located in Sector-65, Urban Estate Gurgaon. This is an Exclusive, Low – Rise, Ultra Luxury Villa Floors offered by Emaar MGF. Emerald Floors Select is 4 bhk apartment plan scattered in the range of 350-500sq yards with world class living style, services and features. Highlights:- · Price starts from 1.15 cr onwards · Located in Sector-65, Urban Estate, Gurgaon. · Choice of Villa Floors on 3 different plot sizes 350,400,500 sq yds · Ground plus two floors with Exclusive Elevator · Independent Surface Parking · Ground Floors with Front & Rear Lawns. · First and Second Floors with separate terraces. · Power Backup This ultra luxurious project has Split Air Conditioners in all Bedrooms and Living / Dining, Modular Kitchen, Health club facility with fully equipped unisex gym, Sports facility – tennis courts, swimming pool, Spa facility with lounge and many more. There is a Mini club Cineplex is also available with this hot project of Gurgaon. This hot project is located at Emerald Hills Urban Estate Sector 65 Gurgaon. Price of Emerald Floors Select project is starts for 1.15 cr onwards. For more information and original booking contact to InvestInNest.com

Tagged as: power, project, sports, swimming-pool, urban

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